In June Intel introduced a new series of high-end processors using the codenamed Skylake-X. These new CPUs are accompanied by a new socket and with that comes a new platform as well. In this round-up we compare 18 Intel X299-motherboards that passed through our test lab.

X299 is the latest incarnation of Intel’s high-end platform, meant for the demanding users that are not satisfied by the mainstream platform (with socket 1151). Intel states it is also for gamers, but we have not yet seen a lot of added advantage of more than 4 cpu cores in our many tests. Especially now that after the release of the 8th generation ‘Coffee Lake’ Core-processors a 6-core cpu is available at a relatively low price, the target audience of X299 are primarily the (semi)professional users of heavy compute, graphic, 3D rendering, cad/cam, video editing and comparable applications. If you are part of that audience and choose to build a system yourself, you can fit up to 18 cores on a single X299 motherboard with the new socket 2066.

It is very difficult to distinguish that socket from the predecessor, socket 2011, by looking at it. Nevertheless it is not backwards compatible. This means that you can only use Skylake-X and Kaby Lake-X processors with an X299-motherboard. Coolers for socket 2011 do fit on the new boards, so there is no need to worry about that.

Motherboard makers are starting to roll out BIOS updates for AMD's Raven Ridge APUs, which are based on AMD's Zen architecture, combining up to 4 Zen-based CPU cores with integrated Vega graphics. ASUS is one of the first out the door with BIOS updates for models ranging from the Prime X370-PRO to ROG Strix X370-F Gaming.

AMD deserves kudos for not forcing users to upgrade their motherboards. Intel has taken the opposite approach with its Coffee Lake release, as even though Coffee Lake uses the same LGA 1151 socket as Kaby Lake, they require an upgrade to a Z370 chipset motherboard. To make matters even more frustrating, Intel has instructed motherboard makers not to support Kaby Lake CPUs in Z370 motherboards.

X299 motherboard VRMs received bad press after investigative research by professional overclocker der8auer demonstrated a tendency for them to run uncomfortably hot with overclocked Skylake-X CPUs. So much so that ASRock has pushed out an enhanced version of its X299 Taichi motherboard, the X299 Taichi XE, even though its X299 Taichi had been highly praised for its VRM and not implicated in the X299 VRM “scandal”.

In this article for Benchmark Reviews we test the be quiet! Dark Base 700 mid-tower computer case. The Dark Base 700 is the newest member of the be quiet! high end case family. This midi tower case sports a tempered glass side panel, a fully modular design, and water cooling support. Dark Base 700 also features filtered ventilation, RGB LED illumination, PWM fan hub, and 2 SilentWings-3 140mm fans pre-installed (one in the front, one in the rear).

Corsair finally added RGB lighting to their excellent ML fans, and with it added, we possibly have the best balance of performance, noise, and aesthetics. Featuring a magnetic levitation bearing, a fine-tuned rotor for high static pressure applications, and four addressable RGB LEDs.

When you drop a couple hundred bucks on a top-end headset these days, you can pretty safely assume that you're getting something that will at least be very good, if not excellent. When you drop your budget into the sub-$50 range, though, you can end up with something that isn't even worth the cost of the RGB LEDs you can pull out of it. So it's with an especially critical eye and ear that I dove into Corsair's HS50 gaming headset. This pair of cans just hit the market for $50 on the dot.

The HS50 Stereo Gaming Headset is a simple affair. It doesn't get much simpler, in fact, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. This is Corsair's least expensive gaming headset yet, and has the feature set to match. As its name already suggests, the HS50 is a sweet-and-simple stereo deal without any of those aforementioned RGB LEDs, onboard EQ settings, or any extra dongles to simulate surround sound. On the headset, you'll find a volume wheel and a button to mute the microphone. In the box are a detachable mic and a Y-adapter to plug the default 4-pole connector into dedicated headphone and microphone jacks on a desktop PC.

Kaby Lake-R has arrived to replace Kaby Lake in the mobile CPU segment. Dell has renamed their award-winning XPS 13 to New XPS 13. While the original XPS 13 uses a dual-core 7th generation mobile processor with a maximum Turbo of 3.1GHz and base of 2.5GHz, the New XPS 13 uses a quad-core 8th generation mobile processor with a Turbo of 4GHz and base of 1.8GHz. The cache also went from 3MB to 8MB, while TDP has stayed mostly the same except for some TDP up and down frequencies and wattage ratings. That means Intel was able to pack in double the cores, more than double the cache, and higher single-core Turbo boost speeds into basically the same power package, which means these new mobile processors should dominate the competition, which at the moment is basically older Intel-based notebooks. Let's see how the new 8th Generation of mobile Core processors performs in an award-winning design from Dell.

We review the Gigabyte AC300W ATX Mid-Tower PC case. Designed with the usage of Gigabyte components in mind the chassis the case is released within the premium Aorus series of products. The casing is tagged VR ready and comes with customizable RGB Fusion functionality.

Thanks to Gigabyte, we’ll be taking a quick look at the Gigabyte AORUS K9 Optical Mechanical Gaming Keyboard. It features Flaretech’s super responsive RED switches, which uses optical actuation rather than the traditional mechanical switches. This gives you a super low debounce time of 0.03ms and offers unprecedented durability of up to 100 million keystrokes. What’s more it’s fully splash-proof thanks to its Hydrophobic Conformal Coating.

Gigabyte are better known for their motherboards and graphics cards, but they have been producing gaming accessories for some time now with limited success. So when their launched the AORUS brand a few years ago, they hope to revitalize their gaming products to attract potential gamers in this very tough but lucrative market.

When AMD announces its next-gen core architecture for their graphics cards aka Vega 10 much was hyped about the possibilities. I have seen multiple debates on the social media where the users were discussing if to hold on before buying the graphics card and wait for the Vega-based graphics cards from the AMD. This was partly due to the successful launch of the Ryzen which not only brought AMD back in the business giving tough times to the Intel that users were hoping that their Vega would also deliver on the same footnotes.After the launch of the Vega series cards i.e Vega 56 and the Vega 64 there was a price fiasco that let the down their fame. The prices that AMD announced at the time of the launch and on the basis of which the reviewers from all around the globe reviewed these cards were later found much inflated and not accurate. This not only disturbed the potential customers but the reviewers alike. Now as the prices in the International market are finally settling down and we are seeing custom solutions from the AIB partners of the AMD, it would be an interesting time for the buyers as Nvidia’s Volta is up next. Well, this is a never-ending cycle. Unfortunately, the prices in our country are not where near the settling trend in the International market which could be a potential bottleneck in the effective sale of the Vega series cards.

Intel’s newest 8th generation Core processors are here and have delivered promising early results in our initial tests on the desktop, and more recently in Dell's XPS 13 laptop as well. The biggest change with Intel's 8th Gen Core Mobile processors comes by way of doubled core counts. This makes many of this new generation of Core i5 and i7 mobile chips true quad-core processors now, with support for up to eight threads with Hyper Threading, all within a 15W TDP target. This improvement does not come without trade-offs, of course, as we see base clocks dropped by up 900MHz relative to each chip’s predecessor.

However, Intel has also seen fit to keep boost clocks high and even increased a bit across the board, so bursty single-threaded tasks ought to be as snappy as ever and multithreaded workloads should fly -- thermals permitting.

The Core i9-7900X is where Intel's new HEDT processor lineup truly begins, delivering on all the platform's three main goals - more cores, more memory channels, and more PCIe lanes. We pit it against the Ryzen Threadripper 1950X for what will be a pitched battle of the 1000-Dollar giants.

All part of the battle against rival AMD’s big core counts with Ryzen. Intel’s next-generation mainstream flagship processor will be a Core i7 CPU that sports no less than 8-cores with 16-threads, according to the latest from the rumor mill.

According to recent leaks, as reported by Wccftech.com, the 9th-generation flagship processor will be the Core i7-9700K which will up the ante to 8-cores from 6-cores (as seen in the current Coffee Lake flagship Core i7-8700K).

Killer Networking Technology makes its way to the router. Our reliance on the Internet and web connectivity is such that the router plays a key role in modern homes or offices. Whereas an ISP-provided box used to fit the bill, it now makes sense to consider an upgrade offering additional features and increased performance. There's plenty of choice, ranging from single units touting ultra-fast speeds to multiple units promising complete mesh coverage, but which router do you choose if gaming is your primary concern?

Gaming routers have traditionally offered little to differentiate themselves from regular models, but Linksys is hoping to set the record straight with the WRT32X, a unit we're told has been "engineered purely for gaming."

On Macs running the latest version of High Sierra, it appears that anyone can log in just by putting "root" in the user name field in a certain place. This is a huge, huge problem. Do not leave your Mac unattended until this is resolved.

At the login screen, you can also use the root trick to gain access to a Mac after the feature has been enabled in System Preferences. At the login screen, click "Other," and then enter "root" again with no password. This allows for admin-level access directly from the locked login screen, with the account able to see everything on the computer.

While it might be late to the party, the graphics card we'll be analysing today seeks to drive down noise and temperatures. In the spotlight today is the MSI GTX 1080 Ti GAMING X TRIO; a flagship graphics card boasting triple fan cooling via the Tri-Frozr thermal solution. MSI has also armed this offering with three factory overclock profiles - Silent Mode, Gaming Mode and OC Mode.

Now that NVIDIA is weeks into its release of its GeForce GTX 1070 Ti, I've had the time to fully benchmark and review a bunch of custom GTX 1070 Ti cards to see what they can do. I thought I'd write this into a GTX 1070 Ti roundup article since I had a few different ones to test. We already know that the custom cards are very, very close to NVIDIA's own GeForce GTX 1070 Ti when it comes to out-of-the-box performance, which is something we're looking at here today. I have four different GeForce GTX 1070 Ti cards to test today, with NVIDIA's own GeForce GTX 1070 Ti Founders Edition MSI GeForce GTX 1070 Ti GAMING GALAX GeForce GTX 1070 Ti EXOC White EVGA GeForce GTX 1070 Ti FTW2 GAMING ZOTAC GeForce GTX 1070 Ti AMP! Extreme

Today we take a look at the Patriot Viper V570 gaming mouse, the Blackout Edition, to be precise. This version foregoes any of the red accents found on the original model for a much more understated and minimised appearance.

After witnessing many years of theoretical presentations but not much in terms of real product release, we are now seeing a deluge of mesh WiFi systems arriving on the market. Hot on the heals of ASUS’s Lyra (https://www.kitguru.net/professional/networking/james-morris/asus-lyra-whole-home-wi-fi-system-mesh-network-review/) comes Tenda with the nova MW6. It joins the already wide selection we put through their paces in our recent Ultimate Mesh WiFi Shootout (https://www.kitguru.net/peripherals/james-morris/ultimate-mesh-wifi-router-shootout/) . With a very keen sub-£200 price for a three-unit configuration from some vendors, the Tenda nova MW6 could be a real bargain.

Marketed as an affordable solution aimed at SOHO and SMB users, the compact 4-bay N4350 NAS from Thecus is an upgraded version of the previous generation N4310 with a faster processor and updated DDR4 memory.